TL;DR - feels like he is either completely disingenuous or a wimp.


I never felt like Pope was a lifer. I always anticipated he’d leave for a bigger job. I felt like he made it clear Kentucky was his dream job, so of course when he had the opportunity he left. I was really excited for next season so the timing was particularly bad for BYU, but I get it. That’s how I felt before the press conference and that’s how I feel now.

Then why did it bug me?

During my morning run was contemplating this, and here’s what I’ve come up with.

The way Pope talks about Kentucky – how it is a different place and it changed him and it is amazing – that’s the way I feel about BYU. I love BYU – sports are a key component of that but it is broader than sports. It is a special place. And focusing just on sports, and specifically basketball, this was a special season. I loved this team. They were so fun to watch and I was so impressed with their growth and progression.

When Pope was here, the way he talked, I felt like his words indicated that he recognized how special BYU is. And how special this year’s team was. I don’t think Pope’s words indicated that he thought BYU was better than Kentucky – but that BYU is still a special place. A different place, and special differently than Kentucky, but special nonetheless.

The disconnect to me in the press conference is it felt like to me if Pope thought BYU was as special as I felt like he conveyed when he was here, it would have been really easy to make some minimal comment to convey that. And he could have done it in a way that would not detract from what he was doing there. In fact, it could ENHANCE the message he was trying to convey.

The biggest opportunity where I think it would have been easy to say something where I was shocked NOTHING to this nature was conveyed was when he was asked something like if he ever gave going to Kentucky a second thought. He could have easily said something like, “Listen, once I got the offer to Kentucky, I’ve told you how I feel about this place. I obviously was going to come here. But, certainly any time you make a big decision like this you think about what you are leaving behind. I loved my time at BYU and it will always be a special place in my heart. And you form relationships with people and this year was so fun to see the development and progress of my team – so you are sad to move from that. But despite those relationships and despite how special BYU is, this is where my heart is ultimately and I am so excited to get started here.”

Then also in the press conference he talked about how gratitude is so important to him – yet didn’t convey any gratitude to BYU or his team.

I think what it boils down to is I really liked Mark Pope. And although I always thought he was an exaggerator, I thought his exaggerations were founded on truth. But after yesterday he feels completely disingenuous to me. Because either (a) he never thought BYU was special and so all his words were lip service or (b) he did think BYU was special but is either insecure or trying to play a part or something and doesn’t feel he can convey it. So either he (a) was just a pure salesman with no honesty behind words or (b) is a wimp.

He doesn’t owe me or us anything. I do feel the players deserved some recognition of some sort. Writing this out has been helpful to put my finger on what bothered me and now I can move on. And I may change my opinion on him later. I keep waffling on whether I want him to be successful or fail – right now I’m annoyed and lean fail, but I think ultimately I will land on wanting him to be successful. I think a guy with BYU ties in such a prominent job finding success ultimately helps BYU. So I think eventually, good luck Pope – and definitely good luck next BYU coach. I hope you recognize and appreciate how great BYU is!